After several months of thorough, good-faith negotiations, a replacement lease that would keep the Navajo Generating Station operating through the end of 2019 is now in the hands of the Navajo Nation Council for consideration and, hopefully, final approval.

I enjoy reading stories about the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) and the coal industry because coal provides a good paycheck for thousands of rural Americans. Coal is also the United States’ most abundant and affordable form of energy.

Today a deal was voted on in a closed meeting by utility Salt River Project (SRP)expected to continue operations at Navajo Generating Station (NGS), the largest coal-burning power plant in the West, for another two years.

Officials from the Navajo Nation and the Salt River Project (SRP) report that negotiations for a replacement lease that would allow the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) to continue operating through the end of 2019 have been productive and that considerable progress has been made.

Despite pledges to look for alternatives, closing the Navajo Generating Station in Page could devastate the local economy, where hundreds of jobs rely on the plant and affiliated coal mine and where experts see few, if any, workable solutions.

The owners of the Navajo Generating Station in Page voted Feb. 13 to keep the plant operating until its lease ends in December 2019, pending agreement with the Navajo Nation on reclamation of the site.